


forward flight

by lynne_monstr



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Flufftober, M/M, New York City, alec loves all of magnus and that's the truth, and a warlock, magnus is a helicopter pilot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 16:42:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16391363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lynne_monstr/pseuds/lynne_monstr
Summary: Magnus can fly anywhere he wants to go, but Alec knows exactly where home is.“I invented the helicopter, you know.”Alec rolled his eyes but he was laughing as he answered, “No you didn’t.”Written for Flufftober Day 22: City





	forward flight

**Author's Note:**

> I'm a day late but I really loved the idea of Magnus piloting a helicopter, so here we are.

“I didn’t know you could fly.”

Magnus’ hands paused in their deft journey across the control panel, turning towards the co-pilot’s seat.

The force of his full attention hit Alec as it always did, pinning him in place more securely than the safety harness he had just strapped himself into. Magnus was a force of raw nature, focused and beautiful and powerful enough to level cities if he so desired.

The effect was only somewhat ruined by the carefree smile that lit up his face.

“I invented the helicopter, you know.”

Alec rolled his eyes but he was laughing as he answered, “No you didn’t.”

“No I didn’t,” Magnus agreed with a wink, shoulders swaying back and forth as much as they could within the confines of the safety harness.

Alec fought the urge to unclip his own chest restraints so that he could lean across the cockpit and grip those strong shoulders in his hands. He wanted to feel the muscles under his palms rock back and forth as he kissed that smile into a breathless gasp. It was the same way he felt whenever Magnus was happy. If he could just get close enough, he could burrow himself deep inside and never have to leave.

But if he did, they’d never get off the ground, and Magnus had been going on about taking them up into the sky for weeks. With a last flick of a few switches, the blades above them started to move, rumbling faster and faster until the air was whipped into a frenzy of howling noise.

Alec flipped his headset on, adjusting the speaker in front of his mouth. Despite the ear protection, the noise around them got even louder.

“Really though?” he asked, genuinely curious now. “When did you learn how to pilot one of these?”

Magnus’ voice came through the speakers loud and clear as they began to lift up into the air.

“I used to sneak onto an Air Force base. Very patriotic of me, I know.”

Somehow Alec doubted Magnus’ illicit activities had anything to do with pride in his adopted city, and said as much. 

Magnus turned to look at him, eyes bright with wonder before focusing back on the sky. “For most of my life, air travel was only for birds. Not even magic had anything like it. When I first heard of a machine that could fly, I was fascinated. I had to see it for myself." 

He handled the controls with the same confidence he used while casting spells, hands steady and sure as he maneuvered the helicopter forward through the air. "I even owned a hot air balloon in the eighteen hundreds, you know,” he added.

“Somehow I can picture you in a giant balloon with a cocktail.”

Magnus huffed in amusement, turning the helicopter so they flew along the path of the river. Alec noticed he didn’t dispute the claim.

The city spread out below them as they rose higher, buildings of all shapes and sizes reaching like fingers up towards the sky on either side of them. Cutting through the urban landscape, the East River flowed like a snake out towards the horizon, broken into large pieces by jutting lines of bridge after bridge. Alec took it all in with wide eyes. The New York he knew was coated in darkness and grime, back alleys and nightclubs where demons lurked and blood was spilled. It was easy to forget that there was another side to it.

The most beautiful side of the city, shown to him by the most beautiful man in it. Pink and orange streaks of sunset glinted off the tips of Magnus’ hair, painting his profile and setting his skin ablaze with radiance. It lit him up, like the physical embodiment of how he lit up Alec’s life.

As they continued working their way up the edge of Manhattan, Magnus pointed out various places he had been or lived, always with a story to go along with it.

The prohibition bar near the Chrysler Building that Charles Lindbergh had visited while Magnus was singing on stage. The corner of Central Park South where Ragnor and Catarina had stolen a horse and proceeded to portal it into Magnus’ home, just to make him laugh. The museum that Magnus insisted stole his old belongings, no matter that they had been dug up centuries after he had abandoned them.

Alec studied the buildings below them, their lights just beginning to emerge from the deepening sunset, trying to see the city as Magnus did.

It was easy to forget that his boyfriend was far older than his youthful looks suggested. He had lived lifetimes, seen so much, done so many things. Ironic, since they almost fell apart before they even got started, due to those exact differences. But once Alec saw beyond the fortified walls Magnus showed the world—saw the person beneath the power and the extravagance and the historical name dropping—the years between them seemed to fall away.

Had Magnus been born mundane, he would have lived and died never having known a sight like this. He would have died, and Alec would never have met him.

The thought twisted Alec’s heart in his chest.

He didn’t need any other reason to love the magic beside the fact it was Magnus’. It was the power at his fingertips that lit his hands and obeyed his will, be it in battle or in bed. It was as much a part of him as the beating heart that lulled Alec to sleep, his head pillowed on Magnus’ strong chest. Or the little birth mark above his eyebrow that Alec loved to kiss first thing in the morning. It was his perfectly manicured hands that wielded a sword or staff or a fireball as deftly as he did a cocktail shaker.

Even if Alec didn’t love the magic for all those things, he would love it for this: the magic brought Magnus through the ages, right here to Alec’s side.

“You’ve lived through so much,” Alec said, voice barely above a whisper. The tensing of Magnus’ shoulders felt like an arrow in Alec’s heart and he could have kicked himself. He rushed to add, “It’s not a bad thing. I just mean there’s a lot.”

Magnus’ smile turned sad. “I’m a lot.”

Alec shook his head, then realized Magnus probably couldn’t see the gesture very well with the large ear protectors obscuring his peripheral vision. “That’s not what I meant,” he said. “Yeah, you’re a lot. But it’s a good a lot. I like all your parts.”

A huff of laughter came over the headset and Alec knew exactly what was coming. Magnus liked to deflect when he was truly uncomfortable.

“Well, Alexander, in that case, there’s one particular part of me—”

“I mean it,” Alec cut in, needing to say this. Not that he wasn’t also interested in that part of Magnus. Quite the opposite, and his plans for the later part of their evening proved as much. But this was too important to let slide.

Magnus always said things like this, like he didn’t believe Alec when he said that no much of Magnus could ever be too much. He hated when Magnus tried to make himself smaller, when he tried to trim off the aspects of himself he thought were _too much_.

Every time, it felt like a piece of Alec’s own heart was being torn out with it.

Magnus stared out the into the skyline fading into twilight, but Alec knew he wasn’t seeing the admittedly spectacular sight.

“Thank you, Alexander.” Magnus voice was low even over the headset, but there was something in his voice that gave Alec hope he was being heard. “I hope you know that I love all of your parts, too.”

“I do,” he said, and he meant it.

His heart fluttered at the memories the words brought forth. All the times Magnus took Alec’s bruised and battered hands into his own at the end of a long day. Prying his bow and arrows from his grasp and replacing it with fingers wreathed in warm magic. Sheltering the parts of him that Alec would rather forget existed, because Magnus loved with his whole heart and his whole heart loved Alec.

Alec loved him so much it hurt.

Sometimes he wondered how his heart didn’t physically jump from his own chest to lodge itself inside of Magnus, where it desperately wanted to live. If it took the rest of his life, he’d make Magnus see himself the way Alec saw him.

Beneath them, the last of the pink sky bled into hues of dark blue and a blanket of tiny flickering lights spread out across the ground around them.

Alec’s home wasn’t perfect, far from it. Even with all of the beauty there were patches of sadness and struggle and pain, all wrapped up in one perfect jewel of a package that Alec wouldn’t change for the world.

Not perfect, no, but perfect for _him_. There wasn’t a single thing Alec would change about Magnus, even if he could.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to come find me on tumblr!  
> lynne-monstr.tumblr.com


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